AACS for Blu-ray discs is a compulsory copy protection which we will apply to customer’s product.

So what is AACS, and why is it needed? It stands for Advanced Access Content System and is a contract between the content owner and the licensing authority.

AACS for Blu-ray stands for "Advanced Access Content System". It is a contract between the disc content owner and the AACS licensing authority and is required by all Blu-ray replicators prior to production of Blu-ray discs. AACS basically works as a copy-protection system to stop unauthorised copies of discs being produced by introducing a "key" into the media during the Blu-ray replication process, however the replicator is unable to introduce this "key" without a valid licence provided by the content owner who must apply for this directly from the AACS authority without any involvement from Dischromatics or its manufacturer. The Blu-ray organisation has stipulated that this licence is a required part of all Blu-ray productions and at this stage there are no alternatives when producing Blu-ray productions.Charges will be levied by the AACS authority during the application stage (currently approximately $1500) and the licence document involves a written contract. More information can be found on their website: http://www.aacsla.comOnce the licence is obtained, there are also charges, albeit slightly lower ones, that must be paid to the Blu-ray replication company for application of the technology (mastering fee and per-disc surcharge). To simplify this already complex process for its customers, Dischromatics includes these charges in your unit price when quoting for Blu-ray Replication.

AACS Keys cannot be introduced during a Blu-ray duplication process as yet, so the discs will not function correctly in a set-top BD Player. Copy protection using AACS for Blu-ray Replication is not available for BDR discs, they are currently only advisable as an archive store and until this position changes, Dischromaticsquality standards dictate that we will not offer BD Duplication as the resulting product would not be compatible with our exacting quality standards.